The present invention relates to single serving brewing cartridges and in particular to an adapter allowing a brewing cartridge made for a popular single serving coffee maker to be used in a newer model single serving coffee maker.
Single serving coffee makers, using a disposable or a reusable cartridge, have become very popular. Such coffee makers are in wide use and a very large variety of brewing cartridges have become available for them. The disposable brewing cartridges are inserted into a brewing cavity of the coffee maker in a generally vertical orientation. An injection needle in the lid of the coffee maker punctures a foil cover on the disposable brewing cartridge to inject liquid into the disposable brewing cartridge and an extraction needle in the base of the brewing cavity punctures a base of the disposable brewing cartridges to release brewed beverage. An example of a popular single serving coffee maker is the coffee maker sold under the trademark KEURIG® which uses a single serving disposable brewing cartridge sold under the trademark K-CUP®.
Reusable cartridges have also been developed for the KEURIG® single serving coffee maker. The reusable cartridges include permanent openings in a lid of the reusable cartridge for the injection needle, and are designed to avoid the extraction needle. The sides and/or bottom of the reusable cartridge include passages allowing brewed drink to escape from the reusable cartridge into the brewing cavity of the coffee maker and then into a cup below the brewing chamber. The reusable cartridge thus alters the flow of brewed drink to avoid the extraction needle, but still works very well in the coffee maker.
A single serving horizontal coffee maker receives a somewhat larger generally horizontal brewing cartridge. The horizontal coffee maker includes parallel injection and extraction needles which both penetrate a foil cover of the horizontal brewing cartridge. Unfortunately, neither the single serving disposable brewing cartridge sold under the trademark K-CUP® nor the very common disposable cartridges made for the original single serving coffee makers can be used in the horizontal coffee makers, depriving the users of both cartridge selection and requiring the use of a more expensive disposable cartridge. An example of a single serving horizontal coffee maker is the coffee maker sold under the trademark VUE® which used disposable horizontal brewing cartridges sold under the trademark VUE®.